Nikon L35 AF - Point and Shoot 35mm Camera

 

So, in May of this year whilst visiting family at Wauchope, I purchased 3 x 35mm Cameras for AU$50.  They were a Graflex 35EL, Olympus Trip 35 and, Nikon L35 AF.

Well, the first film I exposed was on the Graflex 35EL. You can see how that turned out here.  Unfortunately, the Olympus Trip 35 had a sticky shutter problem. I did take that lens apart to try and fix that problem but it is still not opening the shutter wide enough on selected f stops.  

The last to test out was the Nikon L35 AF. My wife had owned one of these when we first met and I recall what a great little camera it was and was looking forward to putting this one through its paces.

This camera hit the market in 1983. It was Nikons very first autofocus in a compact camera body. It comes with a Nikon 35mm lens with a pretty fast f2.8. For its age, the lens is pretty sharp. Looking into the viewfinder reveals a marked rectangular field that will be the border of your subject, Parallax Compensation marking for close up shooting and,  an oval shaped autofocus frame. At the bottom of the viewfinder are four focus icons; one for a close up portrait (Bust), one for portrait from the waist up, one for full body size photo of a few people and, the last, for Landscape.  Focus is achieved by moving the autofocus frame to centre on the subject. Once you have done that, depress the Shutter Button half way down; it will lock onto the subject and a focus indicator needle will move to the appropriate focus icon. Once the focus is locked you can move your camera to complete the composition or simply push further down on the shutter to take the photo.

The camera comes with an automatic advance and rewind, built in pop-up flash, self timer, exposure counter, backlight compensation and, auto exposure window.

The Lens is a Nikon 35mm f2.8 leaf shutter with 5 elements in 4 groups and 46mm filter size. The camera I purchased already had a Skylite UV filter attached. ISO can be changed at the front of the camera and ranges from 50-1000. The camera works on 2 x AA Batteries.

It's the perfect size camera. It fits great into my man bag and is not that heavy.

I used the camera to get a few shots at Wauchope, NSW and then took it along to the Olive Tree Markets in Civic Park, Newcastle to get a few more. I only had a few exposures left on it so I bought it along whilst we were walking the dogs around Lake Macquarie. For a point and shoot, I think it takes excellent photos. It beats the hell out of the Graflex 35EL that I bought at the same time, that's for sure! I'm going to have to try out the flash at some stage I think.

I used an expired Fuji Superia 100 film. Shot at box speed. It's a reliable film and having it frozen has kept it nice and fresh!

Hope you've all been well!

Jordy

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